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Talk:Hajime Saito (2199)
"Captain" vs. "captain" On the official 2202 website, he is identified as "7連隊隊長" ("7 rentai taichō") or "7th company captain." However, this use of the English word "captain" is not the same as the military rank of "captain." It is more like "team leader" or "commanding officer," someone who is in charge of a group or operation regardless of their rank. The situation is similar to use of the word "艦長" ("kanchō") or "ship's commanding officer," which was translated into the English "captain" for Okita in 2199, even though he always carried the rank of admiral. The same thing happened with Berger aboard Lanbea in the movie; he was called "captain" even though he was a major. However, if the word "captain" was specifically used in either the dubbed or officially subtitled versions of 2202, please make an explicit note about the discrepancy on the page. -- BlueResistance (talk) 20:18, June 19, 2018 (UTC) :The term captain is used as a title for a Ship’s CO, which is why it can be excused in Okita and Berger’s case as they are apart of their respective navies. In addition Saito is apart of the Cosmo Marines and generally marines don’t command ships, so it would be bizarre for Saito to be called captain. In addition captain is a recognized ranks among most modern branches. I assume Funimation has to have their scripts approved by their Japanese counterparts, and so they would have know about potential confusion regarding the rank vs title, escpecailly considering they could have used Sarge instead of captain. Johnatha (talk) 01:37, June 22, 2018 (UTC) ::Don't assume perfection. Even if something is approved by the Japanese counterparts, mistakes can still get through. It might be that the Japanese dialogue ends up saying something different from the English dialogue. You would have to listen to the Japanese dialogue or get a hold of Japanese captions to make certain. ::It may also very well be a matter of being linguistically correct but sociolinguistically wrong. On a purely linguistic, word-for-word level, translating "隊長" ("taichō") as "captain" would be fine. However, doing so in a military environment in English would be a mistake. In Japanese military situations, it seems to be conventional to address one by their current job (ship's commanding officer, team leader, commander (for Erich Domel in his role as commander of the Milky Way theater), etc.) rather than by rank. In English military contexts, listeners and readers almost always expect rank to be used. Another example of this can be seen in "The Forever War": in the subtitles, Analyzer addresses Sanada as "XO" instead of "major" or "lieutenant commander," which was fine in Japanese but weird in English. Therefore, in Saito's situation, "captain" was only technically correct but it was a mismatch for the social context that goes along with English. Successful translations regularly need more than just abstract vocabulary equivalencies. ::I have not seen any of the Funimation or Crunchyroll episodes, so I cannot comment on them. As I wrote twice before already, if a dubbed or subtitled episode (or multiple episodes) refers to him as "captain," please write both ranks since both are coming from official sources and therefore have standing, cite the episode(s) by name, and make an explicit note in the article itself describing the discrepancy between the episode(s) and the official website. Don't just arbitrarily pick one. -- BlueResistance (talk) 01:57, June 22, 2018 (UTC)